Over at CoOp, Dave Hoffman recently made an interesting prediction about the likely value, over the next few years, of having a Ph.D. to get an entry-level law teaching job: There are more PhDs in the legal academy every year. They’ve all of the motivation in the world to demand the training as a credential […]
Archive | Academia
Some of the “Homogenized” Temperature Data is False
By Jim Lindgren on December 8, 2009 5:43 pm in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
When the CRU at East Anglia disclosed that it had lost some of the raw temperature data, leaving only the “homogenized” data, some honest commentators expressed the hope that the homogenizing was competently done. Anyone who has been following Climate Audit for the last few years knows that at least some of the adjustments to […]
Physicists Ask American Physical Society to Rescind Its Statement on Global Warming Because It Was Based on “Cheat[ing]” and “Corrupted” Work
By Jim Lindgren on December 7, 2009 2:29 am in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
While the wider world is just beginning to realize that the subfield of paleoclimatology is in shambles (and has been for the last decade), scientists in related disciplines are increasingly fighting back against the shoddy work and orthodoxy that was foisted on them. A small group, including several prominent physicists, are asking the American Physical […]
Debunking Briffa’s Version of the Hockey Sticks
By Jim Lindgren on December 6, 2009 12:18 am in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Among the most ethically challenged of the scientists at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia is Keith Briffa. A couple of months ago, the Bishop Hill blog retold in detail the sad story about Briffa’s own version of the Hockey Stick, which he was able to keep alive by his attempts […]
Looking Back at the Hockey Stick Thesis: The JoNova Acoount
By Jim Lindgren on December 4, 2009 10:16 pm in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Besides last year’s Bishop Hill post discussed below, another blog account of the “Hockey Stick” thesis that merits excerpting is at JoNova. I do this despite my finding its tone a bit overheated and its generalizations not being adequately qualified. Substantively, I disagree with its treatment of the evidence in favor of the Medieval Warming […]
Looking Back at the Hockey Stick Thesis: The Bishop Hill Account
By Jim Lindgren on December 4, 2009 9:39 pm in Academia, Climate Change, Environment, Politicizing Science
Because a big part of the scientific misconduct in ClimateGate involves Michael Mann’s now discredited “Hockey Stick” thesis, I thought it might be good to review a couple of the better posts outlining some of the misbehavior. The first is a long post from 16 months ago at the Bishop Hill blog (tip to Andrew […]
LSAC Study on Law School Gaming Resources for US News Rankings
My law school’s Librarian and Associate Dean, Billie Jo Kaufman, sent around this latest newsletter from the Law School Admissions Council re a new study on how law schools move resources around in order to maximize USNWR rankings (thanks Billie Jo!). Here is part of the LSAC executive summary: Fear of Failing: the Effects of […]
Responses to “Rethinking Blogging-As-Scholarship”
Last night’s post Rethinking Blogging-As-Scholarship has triggered some interesting responses, and I wanted to provide links for those interested: Doug Berman, Steve Bainbridge, Ann Althouse. In collective response to Doug, Steve, and Ann, I agree that the question isn’t whether blogging “is” scholarship, “can be” scholarship, or “has to be” scholarship. Rather, I think the […]
Oral Argument in Dartmouth College Alumni Case:
This Friday the New Hampshire Superior Court will hear oral argument in the latest Dartmouth College alumni case (Brooks v. Dartmouth College). This is a case that was brought by seven individual Dartmouth alumni after the Executive Committee of the Association of Alumni voted to settle the lawsuit brought by the previous Ex Com, notwithstanding […]
Conservatives, Political Correctness and the Academy
Stanley Fish has a thoughtful post on these and related issues. I agree with Fish that “affirmative action” for conservatives or some such would be an inappropriate response to the gross ideological imbalance in American academia. (On the other had, a little, okay, a lot, more self-consciousness by left academics regarding whether they are improperly […]
Prof. Howe Responds
Last week, I criticized a review by Prof. Stephen Howe of Shlomo Sand’s book, The Invention of the Jewish People. Given the somewhat personal nature of the criticism, I invited Prof. Howe to respond, which he does below: Thanks for your courtesy in letting me know about your posting on Volokh, which I read with […]
Unintentionally Ironic Book Review of the Week
Professor Stephen Howe of Bristol University reviewed Shlomo Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People in the Independent. The review itself says nothing of particular interest, and any discussion of the origins of the demographic origins of modern Jews people that doesn’t reference the genetic evidence is doomed to be worthless. But here’s the unintentionally […]
Another reason to be happy you went to law school
Louis Menand’s new article The Ph.D. Problem: On the professionalization of faculty life, doctoral training, and the academy’s self-renewal. Cliff Notes version: the academy (the tenured folks who run things) have every incentive to take in huge numbers of Ph.D. candidates, and turn them into ABD drones to teach undergraduates–even though about half of them will […]
Dear Smith College Seniors Spamming Sites Looking for Survey Participants …
If you look in my previous two posts, you’ll see what I assume are automatically generated surveymonkey.com requests for participants on a study on the media by Smith College students. Let me express to the Smith College students who thought this a good idea, and whatever faculty supervisor approved it, that this is Not a […]
Robert Tsai on ‘Eloquence and Reason’
By Kenneth Anderson on November 15, 2009 2:20 pm in Academia, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Freedom of Speech, Supreme Court
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a new book on constitutional interpretation and language by my colleague, Washington College of Law professor Robert Tsai – Eloquence and Reason: Creating a First Amendment Culture. Constitutional rhetoric and interpretation are not my areas, but I started reading the book and have found it to be a […]